Lisa Stansfield

Lisa Jane Stansfield (born April 11, 1966), better known as Lisa Stansfield, is an English R&B and soul singer from the United Kingdom.

After releasing several unsuccessful singles in her mid-teens (she also co-hosted a Children's TV pop show at this time, Razzmatazz with Alistair Pirrie), she became a major international star. Though her UK band Blue Zone saw modest success with the single "Jackie", she really came onto the radar with her guest vocal stint on Coldcut's record "People Hold On." She is probably best known for her first UK number one single, "All Around the World" (1989), which also peaked at #3 in the United States Billboard Hot 100 the following year. Other worldwide hits from her solo debut album Affection include "This is the Right Time" (featuring a house music-styled production by Coldcut with Mark Saunders), "Live Together", "What Did I Do To You" and "You Can't Deny It". "All Around the World" was the first song by a white female soloist to hit No. 1 on the Billboard R&B chart; "You Can't Deny It" also topped that chart. Affection went platinum in the U.S., and sold a total of five million copies worldwide.

Following the release of Face Up, a greatest hits collection called Biography was released and sold well in the UK and Europe. Stansfield then parted ways with Arista/BMG (ending an eighteen year association with the label). Stansfield signed with ZTT Records for the United Kingdom, and her 2004 release The Moment was produced by Trevor Horn, well-known for his work with Seal, Grace Jones, and Frankie Goes to Hollywood among others. The album would be distributed in Europe by Edel. Featuring the singles "Treat Me Like A Woman" (released as a "double A side" with "Easier") and "If I Hadn't Got You" a song written by Chris Braide with ex-Squeeze songwriter Chris Difford. The album found her exploring more pop-oriented material, and focusing on lush ballads.

Despite this, as with her previous release, the album and supporting singles were not a success. At the time of the project's release, ZTT was gearing large amounts of its resources into re-marketing its back catalogue, and producing the Trevor Horn concert for The Prince's Trust and its accompanying double CD, Produced By Trevor Horn. The release of "Treat Me Like a Woman" was delayed twice. The label eventually paired it with "Easier". While ZTT did erect a billboard to advertise the album in Stansfield's home area of Greater Manchester, print advertising and "in store" displays were reportedly absent. Later that year ZTT dropped her from their label.

To the delight of fans, a DVD of Stansfield's Ronnie Scott's performance in 2003 was released in 2005.

Stansfield also has a dramatic career: she starred in the 1999 film Swing with actor Hugo Speer, recording covers of swing classics and a few original songs written in/inspired by the style for the soundtrack. She later appeared on a London stage in The Vagina Monologues. In 2006, she gueststarred in the series Goldplated. In 2007 she starred in a Marple (TV series) episode Ordeal by Innocence and later joined the cast of The Edge of Love